Way back in the winter of 2011-2012, I did a fast redesign of the NIH Sailing Association (NIHSA) website. It went from this to something much better, but still not there, in a weekend, more or less, to move it from “fairly difficult to use” to “somewhat functional” in time for spring online registration for the 2012 sailing season.

This was never meant to be a permanent solution, and now the time has come (aka, off-season for sailing) to take the site to the next level. It needs a longer, more thoughtful look at its information architecture, changes based on feedback from users over the last year, and a Members Only section that will link to an outside vendor for boat chartering.

So far, my new sitemap looks like this:

I have tried to address the site’s two main user groups through unique paths (one, current members looking for weather, chartering, and member contact info, and two, potential members looking for general club info including rates, activities, and membership options). I will make this clearer through site design as well. We’ll see how this version goes – I’m sure this architecture will adjust as the site develops and I iterate based on feedback from club members, but I’m very happy with this as an initial way forward for NIHSA 2.0.